THREE GREAT EPOCH-MAKERSIN MUSIC
TO THE MEMORY OF
MY TEACHER AND FRIEND
HERMANN KOTZSCHMAR
THAT RIPE MUSICIAN
WHOSE MATURE JUDGMENT HAS MUCH
STRENGTHENED MY OWN
CONVICTIONS
THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED
Three Great Epoch-Makers
in Music
BY
EDWARD CLARENCE FARNSWORTH
PORTLAND
SMITH & SALE, PRINTERS
MDCCCCXII
COPYRIGHT 1912
BY
EDWARD CLARENCE FARNSWORTH
CONTENTS
PREFACE
Bearing in mind Emerson's saying that everyaction admits of being outdone, and aroundevery circle another may be drawn, we none the lessbelieve that a comparison of Sebastian Bach, FredericChopin and Richard Strauss, will show that, becauseof excellences peculiar to his day, and also individualexcellences, no one of these three epoch-makers whollyoutdoes, wholly encircles either of the others. Ratheris he a link of a chain in which Beethoven, Wagner,and certain others are indispensable.
That chain had beginning in the remote past, but,because inadequate, many early links are now broken.Of musicians prior to Bach, Gregory and Palestrinaalone have endured the strain of time. The inadequacyof the old, true of not another art, proves musicto be virtually an achievement of the last two and one-halfcenturies. This brief term, a mere fraction of thatwhich must be allowed to certain of the sister arts,argues for music a very considerable period of futuredevelopment.
Comparison of the Gregorian Chants with the Wagnerianscores may bring doubt upon this statement,but, since the advent of Richard Strauss, it seemsprobable that the musician of the future will smile atthe ideals of our contemporary composers. What werethe tendencies whose centering in one master mindproduced the great classical beginnings of modernmusic, we would show in our estimate of Bach. Thetendencies eventuating in the free style of the romanticist,and the abandon of the ultra school, we wouldindicate in our estimate of Chopin. And, because ofpresent tendencies, what direction tonal developmentwill yet take, we shall endeavor to ascertain in ourestimate of Richard Strauss.
JOHANN SEB